ATLANTA (ABP) — Greenhouse-gas emissions continued to rise in 2007, according to two new studies. But Southern Baptists are still divided over what, if anything, to do about it.
The World Meteorological Organisation said Nov. 26 that concentrations of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide reached new highs in 2007, and methane had its largest annual increase in a decade.
The gases are thought to contribute to the “greenhouse effect” that the vast majority of climatological scientists believe is causing a gradual warming of the planet.
A government study released Dec. 3 showed that, despite increased public awareness about global warming and numerous policy changes, 2007 greenhouse-gas emissions in the United States increased 1.4 percent over the 2006 total.
The WMO report found that levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), the single most important gas thought to affect global temperatures, increased 0.5 percent from 2006 to 2007. That growth rate is consistent with recent years.
Methane, another gas created by both natural and human activities, increased last year at the highest rate since 1998.
A third gas, nitrous oxide, also reached record levels in 2007.
The study says Earth’s greenhouse-gas levels were fairly consistent for 10,000 years until the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Atmospheric carbon dioxide, which accounts for 63 percent of greenhouse gases, has increased 37 percent since the late 1700s, primarily due to emissions from fossil fuels and, to a lesser degree, because of deforestation.
According to Reuters, WMO expert Geir Braathen told a news briefing in Switzerland there is no sign that carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide are leveling off, and it is too early to tell if methane would keep rising.
Scientists warn that the gradual warming of Earth’s atmosphere caused by greenhouse gases will lead to rising sea levels, more damaging severe weather and increased heat waves and droughts.
The current international pact curbing greenhouse-gas emissions, the Kyoto Protocol, expires in 2012. World leaders hope the United States, which did not ratify the accord, will sign on to a new treaty, and that developing nations like China and India will commit to emissions targets.
The Energy Information Administration study blamed increased U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions on two factors: unfavorable weather conditions — which increased demand for heating and cooling in buildings — and a drop in hydropower availability that led to greater reliance on coal and natural gas for generating electricity.
In the United States, evangelicals remain divided over how seriously to regard rising levels of atmospheric gases linked to climate change.
Jonathan Merritt, spokesperson for the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative, said the new data is significant not only from a climatological standpoint, but for theological reasons.
“As Southern Baptists, we believe in the truth of God’s word, which includes the command to keep and tend the Earth and see it flourish,” Merritt said. “Regardless of one’s stance on climate change, everyone can agree that pumping record levels of gas into our atmosphere isn’t a good idea and certainly wouldn’t be consistent with the idea of stewardship.”
A number of prominent Southern Baptists, including current Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt, signed a declaration in March urging increased action to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. So far, more than 500 individuals have endorsed “A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change.”
Those signers don’t include the denomination’s official representative for moral and public-policy concerns, who maintains the globe is actually getting colder instead of warmer.
Richard Land, head of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, called global warming a “hoax” and a “scam” on his weekly radio program Nov. 22.
Land attributed fluctuations in global temperature to “cycles of nature that God has allowed in the cosmos” and labeled human activity “a minor contribution to global warming.”
“The sunspots have faded, the solar cycle has peaked, the sun is going into a quiescent period and everybody but [former Vice President and anti-global warming activist] Al Gore is cooling off,” Land said.
But Merritt said people who selectively quote data to support a contrarian view on the evidence for global warming “are driven more by an ideology than a theology.”
Merritt said he has spoken to Southern Baptist missionaries around the world who thanked him for speaking out on the issue.
“They say that they use the creation as a starting point for sharing the gospel,” he said. “Furthermore, they say that the Western world’s witness is hurt by our wasteful and consumptive habits. When we speak with a unified moral voice and put feet to our faith, the gospel is stronger both at home and around the world.”
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.